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THE . . . 










American 






Verdict on 








the War: A 








REPLY TO THE APPEAL TO THE ^ 








CIVILIZED WORLD OF 








93 GERMAN PROFESSORS 








BY 

Samuel Harden Church. 








President Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh 








TOGETHER WITH THE APPEAL 
AND THE NAMES OF THE SIGNERS 






This letter has been printed in nearly all the princi- 
p;)I languages of the world and circulated broadcast 
throughout the neutral countries of Europe, and among 
the allied nations; while a special edition in the Ger- 
man language is now being distributed by British avia- 
tors among the German people in peaceful flights across 
the German borders. Innumerable requests for the 
pamphlet bv Americans, who have, in some cases, ex- 
pres.^ed the desire for hundreds of copies for circulation 
among friends, have led to its publication in America. 




THE NORMAN, REMINGTON CO. 






PUBLISHERS 








BALTIMORE, MD. 











Price 15 Gents 



Copyright 1915 

BY 

The Norman, Remington Co. 



-Cs 

^^ ^ FOREWORD 

I was moved to write my letter on the German War 
because "The Appeal to the Civilized World," to which it 
is a response, had been sent to me by a valued friend, Dr. 
Fritz Schaper, of the University of Berlin. In making this 
reply I felt it to be a duty to place before Dr. Schaper, and 
before the German people, an expression of the views 
which were almost overwhelmingly entertained by the 
American people, in order that public opinion might exer- 
cise its largest influence in the restoration of peace. I have 
not yet received a reply from Dr. Schaper, although 
General von Dickhuth, Governor of the German province 
of Thorn, in East Prussia, has written to me that my letter 
duly reached its destination in Dr. Schaper's hands ; and 
other German friends have assured me that they, too, have 
read it. 

I can only add now that if the safeguards of the 
World's peace and dignity are indeed ultimately to be found 
in an International Court, and in an International Military 
Power which shall be charged with the enforcement of that 
Court's decrees, then it seems high time that the neutral 
Governments of North and South America, including of 
course our own, should unite with those of Italy, Spain, 
Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Switzerland in a mighty 
League of Peace, and constrain the warring nations to stop 
the conflict, the German armies to retire at once from the 
violated soil of Belgium and France, and the guilty nations 
to be assessed due penalties. Such a League of Peace, to 
be joined later by all the nations now at war, would forever 
end the encroachment of powerful states upon weaker ones, 
and we would then see human rights placed above the ar- 
rogance of nations. 

S. H. Church. 

Pittsburgh, February 20, 191 5. 



MAR -5 1915 

O>CU306156 



Reply to the German Professors, 

BY 

SAMUEL HARDEN CHURCH. 

President Carnegie Institute, Pittsburg. 
Author of "The Life of OHver Cromwell." 

NINETY-THREE of the most prominent men of Ger- 
many, distinguished in various branches of science, 
art, education, and literature, have recently circu- 
lated broadcast throughout America a letter entitled, "An 
Appeal to the Civilized World," in which they attempt to 
change public opinion in the United States on the subject 
of war. In this letter they state that Germany was 
not responsible for the outbreak of the war; that she did 
not violate the neutrality of Belgium; that she did not de- 
stroy Louvain ; that her soldiers have not oppressed the 
Belgian people nor committed any atrocities ; and that mili- 
tarism is the only safeguard of German civilization. Mr. 
Church, the President of the Carnegie Institute, at Pitts- 
burgh, and author of a book that has won distinction in 
America and Europe, has made reply to the German ap- 
peal, as follows : 



4 
Pittsburgh, U.S.A., November 9, 1914- 

Prof. Dr. Fritz Schaper, 

Berlin, Germany. 

My Dear Doctor Schaper: 

I have received with your compHments and autogra])h 
a printed letter addressed "To the Civilized World," and 
signed by ninety-three of the most distinguished names in 
German art, science and literature, your own among them, 
and I assure you that a communication so endorsed will 
receive my most profound consideration. To me those 
ninety-three names are tremendously potent and influen- 
tial. I have the honor of a personal acquaintance with 
some of these gentlemen, yourself and Prof. Adolf von 
Harnack, and a few others, while many of these men have 
done their work with such universal scope that they must 
not count themsehes as Germans only. l:)ecause they belong 
to the whole world, and the whole world esteems and re- 
veres them for their eminent services to humanity. The 
•plays of Hauptmann and the music of Humperdinck are, 
I am sure, as well known in America as in Germany. Many 
of us have sat at the feet of Ehrlich and Eucken as Paul 
sat at the feet of Gamahel. In our great institutions of 
science, art, and learning, such as our Carnegie Institute, 
we look upon Bode as a source of final judgment in his 
field of work. Max Reinhardt is at the head of a new 
movement in theatrical production which has reached the 
American stage. Siegfried Wagner is a precious name .to 
us all by inheritance. Rontgen, Wassermann, Behring, and 
the other signers have promoted learning and ameliorated 
human suffering. You yourself have, through the sugges- 
tion made by your Emperor, been a guest in Pittsburgh at 
the dedication of the new building of the Carnegie Institute, 



amidst a group of illustrious men gathered here from all 
over the world, the German section, as I remember with 
feelings of deep friendship, having included General von 
Loewenfeld, General Dickhuth, Dr. von Ihne, Dr. von 
Moeller, Dr. Koser, and yourself, all of them, in response 
to our urgent request, bringing with them, as our most pre- 
cious guests, their wives or daughters, except alas ! General 
von Loewenfeld. who, winning his way to the head of 
armies, told me he had not yet been able to win a wife. 
But I have reminded him that while there is life there is 
hope. 

Need I say more to prove to you how deep is the sym- 
pathy, affection, and gratitude which I and all my country- 
men cherish towards the people of the German Empire? 
Need I say how our hearts bleed for them in this time of 
dreadful calamity, or how much we hope and pray that 
peace may soon return to the troubled bosom of the Father- 
land? Why, the very texture of our nation would make 
us true to Germany in all her moral rights, because we have 
at this moment eight million people of German birth 
or German parentage in our population, and these citizens 
are among the very best in this country. Therefore, in a 
peculiar sense, we hold Germany in our heart of hearts, 
for she is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. But in 
the same way we cherish the people of all other races, ex- 
cept, alas, those from Asia, and one day, in God's own 
time, we shall grow big enough in a spiritual sense to re- 
ceive the children of Asia with equal hospitality. But we 
are a cosmopolite nation, and besides having those eight 
million Germans we have absorbed thirteen millions from 
Great Britain, 300,000 from France, 3,000.000 from Russia, 
2,000,000 from Austria, 25.000 from the Balkans, and 100,- 
000 from Belgium. All told we have 32,000,000 of foreign 
birth and foreign parentage in our 100,000,000 population. 



so that our blood and fibre comprises the whole human 
family. 

Could we be lacking in sympathy for Germany, then, 
in this awful war? And could we take sides unjustly or 
from prejudice when all those who are engaged in the ter- 
rible conflict are our veritable brothers in the one family of 
God's children? Our excellent President Wilson, beloved 
and esteemed by our whole people, has charged us all to 
maintain an impartial neutrality, and that I believe we are 
earnestly striving to do ; but we are, at the same time, in 
like manner, earnestly striving to find the right and to con- 
demn the wrong, because neutrality can never mean indif- 
ference. You will .remember that Dante, in the Inferno, 
found a hell beneath- all other hells prepared for those timid 
beings who insisted on being neutral in the everlasting fight 
between good and evil. This war is a fight between those 
forces of good and evil, and I believe that the American 
people, having divested themselves of prejudice, are devot- 
ing themselves to a study of the evidence in order that pub- 
lic opinion may conform to the facts. In the course of this 
study your letter "To the Civilized World" becomes a sub- 
stantial part of the testimony. 

In your letter you say that your enemies, "by their 
lies and calumnies, are endeavoring to stain the honor of 
(lermany in her hard struggle for existence — in a struggle 
which has been forced upon her." 

It gives me a feeling of pity to note the importunity 
with which the people of Germany are seeking the good 
opinion of America in this strife. It is greatly to their 
credit that they wish to stand right in the judgment of this 
nation. But Germany need have no fear that American 
public opinion will be jierverted by the lies and calumnies 
of her enemies. We are all going deeper than the surface 
in our search for the truth. Your letter speaks of Germany 



as being in a struggle "which has been forced upon her." 
That is the whole question; all others are subsidiary. If 
this struggle was forced upon Germany, then indeed she 
stands in a position of mighty dignity and honor, and the 
whole world should acclaim her and succor her, to the 
utter confusion and punishment of the foes who have at- 
tacked her. But if this outrageous war was not forced 
upon her, would it not follow in the course of reason that 
her position is without dignity and honor, and that it 
is her foes who should be acclaimed and supported to the 
extreme limit of human sympathy? 

I believe, dear Doctor Schaper, that the judgment on 
this paramount question has been formed. That judgment 
is not based upon the lies and calumnies of the enemies of 
Germany, nor upon the careless publications contained in 
the newspapers, but upon a profound study of the official 
correspondence in the case. This correspondence has been 
published and disseminated by the respective Governments 
concerned in the war; it has been reprinted in full in our 
leading newspapers, and with substantial fullness in our 
magazines, and has been republished in a complete pam- 
phlet form in one hugh edition after another by the "New 
York Times," and again by the American Association for 
International Conciliation ; and the public demand for this 
indisputable evidence has not yet been satisfied, although 
many millions of our people have read it. These documents 
are known officially as (i) The Austro-Hungarian note 
to Servia. (2) The Servian Reply. (3) The British 
White Paper. (4) The German White Book. (5) The 
Russian Yellow Book. (6) The Belgian Grey Book. They 
contain all the letters and dispatches which each govern- 
ment desired to publish to the world as its own justifica- 
tion for being at war. And, by tlie way, every man who 
studies these papers will regret two things : first, that Ger- 



8 

many has not dared to publish her correspondence with 
Austria, and, second, that Austria has not dared to pubhsh 
her correspondence with Germany. If the world were in 
possession of this suppressed evidence, its judgment on the 
question of guilt would doubtless be greatly facilitated. 
But, in so far as they have been printed, all of these docu- 
ments are before me as I write this letter. I cannot help 
wondering whether they have been circulated in Germany ; 
I cannot help wishing that the German people might have 
the opportunity which my countrymen have had of reading 
these state papers in their fullness. 

Was this war forced upon Germany? What do the 
official documents prove? 

Well, we all know that Austria, away back in 1908, made 
seizure of the two provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 
A thing like that enrages the human spirit ; and the brains 
of some men will not act normally under such extreme 
provocation. In May, 1914, the Austrian Crown Prince 
went into these provinces. The people looked upon him as 
an invader, a usurper, a conqueror, a tyrant, and he was 
assassinated. It was a detestable act, condemned and ab- 
horred by just men everywhere. T condemn it, detest it, 
and abhor it. But it was the penalty which any man would 
pay who would flagrantly invade a conquered province 
under like circumstances. There is always a hot-head ready 
to murder a tyrant, and a tyrant is one who makes himself 
a conqueror for his own aggrandizement. In the eyes of 
those subjugated people, the Crown Prince w'as a tyrant. 
Austria at once assumed to hold Servia responsible for this 
murder, and dispatched an ultimatum containing ten drastic 
conditions which were more exacting upon the dignity of 
.Servia than any demand that was ever before made by one 
nation upon another. Yet Servia yielded to all except in 



part as to Articles 5 and 6. In Article 5 the Imperial 
scheme of Pan-Germanism was developed — insidiously 
broached, it is true, but still it was put before Servia as a 
definitive part of the plan of Austro-German expansion. 
Servia was required "to accept the collaboration in Servia 
of representatives of the Austro-Hungarian government in 
the suppression of the subversive movement directed against 
the territorial integrity of the (Austrian) monarchy." 

This brief clause is full of hidden meaning. The 
phraseology is so elastic that its acceptance by Servia would 
have given Austria the opportunity to extend its purport so 
that it would cover practically any kind of interference in 
Servian affairs for the ostensible purpose of suppressing 
any "subversive movement." Already Austria had ravished 
Servia of two of her precious jewels, and was laying her 
plans now to despoil her of more. In Germany's "White 
Paper" we read- an undisguised acknowledgment that the 
main object of Austria's war on Servia was to assert a con- 
trol in Servia over all policies which Austria might regard 
as having any inimical effect upon such territory as should 
now belong to Austria or would hereafter be annexed. 

It would be difficult to conceive of anything that would 
be a more fatal impairment of the sovereignty of Servia 
than for her to yield to this harsh demand. Yet she replied 
with patience and dignity, consenting "to admit such col- 
laboration as agrees with the principle of international law, 
with criminal procedure, and with good neighborly rela- 
tions." 

It is well that we should keep in mind the avowed ob- 
ject of Germany and Austria in making this significant de- 
mand upon Servia, in order that we may be able to avoid 
the error of assuming that the Austrian war on Servia was 
merely a punitive expedition on account of the assassination 
of the Crown Prince of Austria. When these minatory 



lO 



conditions were published, Russia, as one of the great pow- 
ers of Europe, naturally felt that she had a historical basis 
to claim, and she did emphatically claim, a right to a voice 
in determining whether the sovereignty of the kingdom of 
Servia should be permanently impaired. Germany well 
knew that an insistence upon this condition would make a 
general war inevitable ; yet she proclaimed her insistence 
from the house-tops, and defied Russia to interfere. 

Again, Article 6 contained the unprecedented condi- 
tion that Austrian jurists should sit in the Servian court 
before which the assassins were to be tried, and even here 
Servia agreed to submit in effect, although calling attention 
to the extremely reasonable fact that such participation by 
Austria was contrary to the laws of Servia. If her replies 
on any part of the ultimatum were not satisfactory to Aus- 
tria, Servia candidly oft'ered to hold further conversations 
on the subject, or to refer the matter to The Hague Court, 
or to the great powers of Europe. In this transaction Servia 
showed a disposition towards reparation and towards peace, 
which the civilized world has been trying for many years 
to inculcate into the foreign relations of all nations. Servia 
had just passed through two wars, and her strength was ex- 
hausted. But Austria, conscious all the time that good faith 
would have enabled her to reach an agreement in a con- 
versation of thirty minutes, was resolved to make war, and 
in this resolve the German Emperor and the military party 
in Germany upheld her, as candidly acknowledged in their 
official declarations. 

The German White Book is very frank on this subject. 
It says: "We were able to assure our ally (Austria) most 
heartily of our agreement with her view of the situation, 
and to assure her that any action that she might consider 
it necessary to take in order to put an end to the movement 



II 



in Servia directed against the existence of the Austro-Hun- 
garian monarchy would receive our approval." 

You will see, my dear Doctor Schaper, that it never 
entered into the minds of the Emperor and his advisers to 
refer the question to The Hague Court or to discuss it in 
a concert of the powers of Europe. What w^e are trying 
to do, you will remember, is to find out who began the war. 
So the German statement proceeds : "We were fully aware 
in this connection that warlike moves on the part of Aus- 
tria Hungary against Servia would bring Russia into the 
question, and might draw us into a war in accordance with 
our duty as an ally." 

I hope you will read that last quotation with extreme 
care. Does it not prove by German declaration alone that 
all these myriad thousands of good German working men 
who have been slaughtered in their invasion of other lands 
have died, not because the Fatherland was in peril, but be- 
cause ambitious schemes of the dynastic houses of Haps- 
burg and Hohenzollern demanded the sacrifice? 

In the English White Paper we have all the telegrams 
which were exchanged between the English Foreign Office 
over the signature of Sir Edward Grey and the diplomatic 
officials of the other powers, including the Imperial Chan- 
cellor of Germany. These telegrams to and from her own 
foreign office are, curiously enough, not included by Ger- 
many in her presentation of the case. On July 24th Sir Ed- 
ward Grey, through the British Ambassador at Berlin, pro- 
posed a conference between Germany, Italy, France and 
England in the event of the relations between Austria and 
Russia becoming threatening, and he repeated this sugges- 
tion the next day to the German Ambassador at London. 
The Emperor returned suddenly to Berlin on July 26th 
.(he was not "away on his vacation when the war broke 
out," as has been stated by his defenders in America time 



12 



and time again), and Sir Edward Grey repeated his urgent 
appeal for a conference of accommodation. So on the next 
day the EngHsh Ambassador at BerHn telegraphed Sir Ed- 
ward Grey "Secretary of State says that conference you 
suggest would practically amount to a court of arbitration, 
and could not, in his opinion, be called together except at 
the request of Austria and Russia. He could not, there- 
fore, fall in with your suggestion, desirous though he was 
to cooperate for the maintenance of peace. I said I was 
sure that your idea had nothing to do with arbitration, but 
meant that representatives of the four nations not directly 
interested should discuss and suggest means for avoiding 
a dangerous situation. He maintained, however, that such 
a conference as you proposed was not practicable." 

Was Germany anxious to avoid war? Did she make 
the slightest elTort to avert it? Do we see her being at- 
tacked? W^ere her "jealous neighbors" oppressing her? 
On the contrary, Germany stood steadfastly upon her as- 
surance that Austria was justified in making war on 
Servia, and that if Russia interfered, she would fight Rus- 
sia. Then who began the war? And once again, why did 
these German husbands, sons and fathers die ? And all this 
time England and France and Russia and Italy were striv- 
ing mightily to hold back Austria from beginning a con- 
flict which they all knew, as Germany knew, would destroy 
the peace of the world. They all pleaded for further con- 
ference, but Austria was obdurate, being upheld to her un- 
compromising attitude by Germany, and on July 27tli she 
began her war on Servia. 

Returning to the German White Book, we read that 
after Austria had attacked Servia, Russia began to mobilize 
her army, as she had all along declared that she would do, 
for action against Austria if it became necessary. W^e then 
come upon one of the most extraordinary communications 



13 

which has ever been written. It is a telegram from the 
German Emperor to the Czar, and says : "The unscrupu- 
lous agitation which has gone on for \ears in vServia 
has led to the revolting crime of which Archduke Francis 

Ferdinand was the victiqi Undoubtedly you 

will agree with me thalt we two, you and I, as well as all sov- 
ereigns, have a common interest in insisting that all those 
morally responsible for this terrible murder sliall suffer 
deserved punishment." 

We begin to see now why those German soldiers have 
died, and why those German women are weeping. A prince, 
no matter whether he was a usurper and an invader, has 
been shot. Therefore let all Hell break loose in Europe! 
And those of us who have been shocked when bombs have 
been hurled at emperors, are now astounded to behold that 
emperors, in emulation of the most despicable anarchists, 
have themselves hurled bombs at defenseless women and 
children in Antwerp and in Paris. 

The Czar replied: "A disgraceful war has been de- 
clared on a weak nation ; the indignation of this, which I 
fully share, is immense in Russia. I foresee that soon I 
can no longer withstand the pressure that is being brought 
to bear upon me, and that I shall be forced to adopt meas- 
ures which will lead to war." 

The Emperor answered thus : "I cannot consider Aus- 
tria's action a disgraceful war. Austria knows by experi- 
ence that Servia's promises, when they are merely on paper, 
are quite unreliable." 

I cannot help asking you, dear Doctor Schaper, if the 
world has not come to know that there are other promises 
which, when they are merely on paper, are quite unreliable? 
Does not one such paper bear your Emperor's signature? 
Has not your Emperor declared that his solemn and sacred 



14 



guarantee of Belgium's neutrality is nothing but a scrap of 



paper 



England now asked whether Germany, in. the event of 
war, would guarantee that she would not despoil France 
of her territorial possessions, and Germany replied that she 
could not give such guarantees. And in answer to a last 
effort on the part of England to protect France from dis- 
memberment and spoliation, the Emperor sends this amaz- 
ing telegram to the King of England: "My mobilization 
cannot be countermanded because I am sorry your telegram 
came so late. But if France offers me neutrality, which 
must be guaranteed by the British fleet and army, I shall of 
course refrain from attacking France and employ my troops 
elsewhere. I hope that France will not become nervous. 
The troops on my frontiers are in the act of being stopped 
by telegraph and telephone from crossing into France." 

"My mobilization!" It is the Emperor, then, who has 
mobilized. The time may come, dear Doctor Schaper, and 
you and I ought to hope that it will come soon, when there 
will be neither Kings nor Emperors with power to mobilize 
armies as a child plays with toy soldiers! In a certain 
event, says the Emperor, "I shall refrain from attacking 
France"^ — and mark what follows! "- — and employ my 
troops elsewhere." The Emperor is determined to make 
war, either on France, or "elsewhere." And then : "I hope 
France will not become nervous." Now what should make 
France nervous?. "The troops on my frontiers are in the 
act of being stopped by telegraph and telephone from cross- 
ing into France." There we have it all ! The telegram from 
England came too late ; the German Emperor has mobilized ; 
his armies are already crossing the French Frontiers, but 
France must not become nervous! Poor France! already 
shaking with the tread of a million invaders, she must not 
get nervous I 



' 15 

The final step, then, appears to be an ultimatum, on 
July 31st, from the Imperial German Chancellor giving 
Russia twelve hours to cease her mobilization. But Russia 
continued to make her preparations, and the war broke out 
on August I St. 

Who began it? Was it England? Scarcely so, for 
England, in so far as her army is concerned, had yielded to 
the popular plea for arbitration ; she was not ready for war 
and will not be ready for another six months. Was it 
France? Was it Russia? Not one of the ninety-three dis- 
tinguished men who have sent me this letter, if they will 
read the evidence, will say so. Nominally it was Austria, 
who, by her unreasonable and inexorable attack on Servia, 
began the War, but Austria was supported, controlled and 
guided at every step by Germany, who, in her turn, gave 
notice to the powers of Europe that any interference with 
Austria would be resented by Germany to the full limit of 
war. 

For what, then, have these brave German soldiers died? 
Alas ! Not one of all those among her slaughtered battal- 
ions could answer that question, in the last moment of his 
agony. The men who have fallen among the allies have 
died on their own soil, defending their countries against in- 
vasion, but all your sons have died in a foreign land with- 
out a cause. 

The next point in your letter reads thus : "It is not 
true that we trespassed in neutral Belgium." Have these 
ninety-three men studied well the letter they have signed? 
Could intellects so superbly trained deliberately certify to 
such an unwarranted declaration? Once again I ask, are 
the people of Germany being supplied with the evidence 
which is given to the rest of the world? Has any one of 
my ninety-three honored correspondents read the guilty 
statement made by Imperial Chancellor von Bethman-HoU- 



i6 



weg in the Reichstag on August 4th? I fear not^ for in that 
statement the Chancellor said: 

"We were compelled to override the just protests 
of the Luxemburg and Belgian governments. Our 
troops have occupied Luxemburg and perhaps are al- 
ready on Belgian soil. Gentlemen, that is a breach of 
international law. It is true that the French govern- 
ment has declared at Brussels that France is willing to 
respect the neutrality of Belgium, so long as her oppo- 
nent respects it. France could wait, but we could not. 
The wrong — I speak frankly — that we are committing 
we will endeavor to make good as soon as our military 
goal has been reached." 

Again, I am impelled to wonder whether any of you 
gentlemen are aware of the fact that your Imperial Chan- 
cellor himself made an appeal for the good opinion of the 
American people, which was published in the American 
newspapers on August 15th, in which he again acknowl- 
edges this crime against Belgium in the following words: 

"Necessity forced us to violate the neutrality of 
Belgium, but we had promised emphatically to com- 
pensate that country for all damage inflicted." 

What will the good conscience of the German people 
say when, in spite of its passion in the rage of war, it grasps 
the awful significance of the confession of its Imperial 
Chancellor? What necessity? Who would ever have at- 
tacked you if your Emperor had not marched his troops 
across the frontiers of his peaceful neighbors? "The wrong 
that we are committing." The wreck and ruin of a country 
that has done you no injury, the slaughter of her sons, the 
expulsion of her King and government, the blackmail of 
her substance, the destruction of her cities, with their happy 
homes, their beautiful monuments of historic times, and the 
priceless works of human genius! 



17 

"The wrong that we are committing." Worst of all, 
when the desperate and maddened populace, seeing their 
sons slain and their homes in flames, fired from their win- 
dows in the last instinct of nature, your troops, with bar- 
baric ferocity, put them to the sword without distinction of 
age or sex ! The wrong ! Why do you deny it against the 
shameful acknowledgment of the official voice of Germany? 
Oh, Doctor Schaper, if these conditions should ever be re- 
versed and these foreign soldiers should march through the 
streets of Berlin, would not you, would not all of my ninety-' 
three correspondents, if they saw their homes battered in 
ruins and their sons dead in the streets, would not they, too, 
fire from their windows upon the merciless invaders? I 
am sure I would do so ! When our American troops were 
recently dispatched t6 Mexico, not to conquer, not to make 
war, but to restore peace and good order and the authority 
of law, some of the people of \'era Cruz fired at them from 
their windows, and twenty-three of our young soldiers were 
killed. At last they fired back at the sharpshooters, but 
they did not destroy the city, nor kill the innocent, and even 
those among the sharpshooters who were captured were 
not executed, but were admonished to good behavior, and 
set free. I almost wish that America had the power and 
the will to go into Belgium and France, to thrust back 
these wicked invaders, and restore peace and good order 
and the authority of law there. Such a power is surely 
going to be organized, one of these days, by the humane 
people of all the world, and after that a nation which under- 
takes to prepare death and hell for all mankind, as your 
nation has done during these past twenty-five years, will be 
restrained as a public enemy. Yet the gross savagery that 
took us to Mexico is mild indeed when we compare it with 
the barbaric destruction and murder that is being pursued 
by your troops in those two countries. 



i8 



If Germany is not guilty, then, Doctor Schaper, in 
God's name, why are your armies in Belgium? Why are 
they in France? If you had waited until you had been at- 
tacked, you would never have found your nation at war. 
Your Imperial Chancellor says that you have violated in- 
ternational law and that you will endeavor to make good 
the wrong you are committing. Why, Doctor Schaper, all 
the gold you could give to France and Belgium in a thou- 
sand years, and all the penitential prayers you could utter 
in every hour of a thousand years, together with the con- 
trition of a shamed and broken heart, would not repair your 
ruin of two nations by fire and slaughter, nor dry up the 
ocean of human tears which have accompanied your hideous 
invasion. People sometimes ask us : "W^ould you rather 
have the Slav than the German?" And the reply is always 
to the same effect : "Yes, since we have seen the German 
at war, we would rather have the Slav, rather the Turk, 
rather the Hottentot !" 

Your communication makes other denials, that you 
"have not injured the life and property of a single Belgian 
citizen without the bitterest self-defense having made it 
necessary," and that your troops "have not treated Louvain 
brutally." The judgment here also must rest upon the facts, 
and the facts are too well known to justify their repetition, 
and argument would be wasted. I do, however, bring one 
witness against you on this charge, and one only. It is your 
Emperor. Hear him! "My soldiers have destroyed Lou- 
vain because of the trespass of the people, and the lives 
and property of many innocent persons have been sacri- 
ficed. My heart bleeds for Louvain !" 

You likewise make denial of atrocities, not justified by 
warfare. Well, here in Pittsburgh, we have received a let- 
ter from one of our Red Cross nurses who is serving in 
Belgium. Among those under her care is a boy who, brave 



lad, fired from his window at the troops who were ravaging 
his country, and had both hands cut off by your soldiers. 
And was not the Burgomaster of Termonde slain because 
he defended his daughter against the attack of a German 
officer — a guest in his own house? Another story reaches 
me to-day from one of my own business correspondents 
formerly living at Brussels but forced to flee to Nantes, 
who tells me that your soldiers shot the Cashier of the Na- 
tional Bank of Belgium and his two sons, because he re- 
fused to give them the combination of his safe. Common 
tales like these seem only too well authenticated. But why 
make denial of individual atrocities when we have them in 
such wholesale instances as those "at Louvain, Alost and 
Termonde ? Our people look upon war itself as an atrocity, 
debasing a nation that provokes it as much as private mur- 
der debases the criminal who instigates it. Your Emperor 
was admired as one of the greatest men in the world. But 
what will be the fame that he leaves to posterity? Oh, 
what a fall is there! His inexcusable provocation of war 
has stung humanity to the innermost depths of its soul. Be- 
sides drenching Europe with human blood, he is giving her 
a new population of weeping widows and bereft mothers, 
of fatherless children, and of men without arms and legs. 
A heritage of hate ! 

And then you conclude your letter by defending Ger- 
man militarism. Well, that would bring us back again to 
the question of how the war began. No candid mind can 
doubt that the responsibility for the war rests entirely upon 
Germany because of her encouragement of Austria to at- 
tack Servia, knowing, as Germany knew, that a European 
conflagration would result. For Austria is only a ram- 
shackle empire, bound together by a rope of sand, not able 
to assimilate various races into one homogeneous nation, 
as we assimilate them in America, because her government 
is not a government of equal rights, and she couM never do 



20 



anything either good or l)ad, on her own initiative, in a 
masterful way. But there are causes l)ack of this. 

Your referenpe to Ciernian mihtarism brings to mind 
the conviction that this war began potentially twenty-five 
years ago, when Emperor William II. ascended the throne, 
declared himself Supreme \\ ar Lord, and [)rocceded to pre- 
pare his nation for war. His own children were raised from 
their babyhood to consider themselves soldiers and to look 
forward to a destiny of slaughter; and here in America we 
know even his daughter only by her photograph in a colonel's 
uniform. And as with his own children, so all the youth of 
his empire were brought up. Compulsory military service 
made every man a soldier. I have been in Germany and have 
everywhere noted the lack of national tranquility, for the 
streets were at all times full of soldiers ; the eye caught noth- 
ing but the flash of shining helmets and polished breast- 
plates; the ear heard nothing but the clanking of sabres and 
the jingling of spurs. Horses were chafing their bits and 
beating the air with impatient hoofs. And all this constant 
noise and panoply of war has poisoned the imagination of 
the German people, and the surging spirit of conflict has got 
itself into their blood. 

A man wearing the Kaiser's uniform became at once 
a member of an exclusive class. A waiter cjuestioning a 
score with a drunken officer was stabbed to the heart, the 
soldier's uniform making the act a good defense. A lame 
shoemaker, living in a conquered province, who muttered 
words against the Kaiser's troops, was cut down with a 
sabre, and the officer who committed the cowardly assault 
was effusively praised by the German Crown Prince. A 
man in humble station, who sought^to greet with familiar 
approach a former friend now in officer's uniform, was 
killed for his impudence, the murderer even writing a letter 
to his victim's mother justifying the crime. I have myself 



21 



seen German officers elbow gentle women on the street to 
make more room for themselves. I have seen others of them 
raise their glasses to the day when they would be at war. 

And in every day of every year of the twenty-five the 
Emperor has, by his incendiary speeches, inflamed the pub- 
lic ardor for this potential war. Men who proposed sub- 
stantial ways of peace were sneered at for their interfer- 
ence. When the working classes of the world began to 
stagger under the taxation for prospective war (about 75 
per cent, of the revenues of all governments going into 
these wasted expenditures) the English cabinet proposed 
a cessation of further preparation for one year, but the Em- 
peror's answer to this humane suggestion was to add four 
battleships to his fleet and three hundred thousand men 
to his army, immediately requiring France to lengthen out 
her term of service from two years to three. 

Your General von Bernhardi said: "Eft'orts to secure 
peace are extraordinarily detrimental to the national health." 
The very professors in your universities have helped instil 
into the minds of your young men this doctrine that war 
was inevitable. Going far away from your great philoso- 
pher, Kant, who, in his Categorical Imperative, has taught 
us all a new golden rule, the national spirit of Germany 
has been fed on the sensual materialism of Nietzsche, on 
the undisguised bloodthirst of General von Bernhardi, on 
the wicked war dreams of Treitchske. and on the weak 
morahty of von Biilow ; and in every scrap of evidence 
that we can gather from your Emperor, his children, his 
soldiers, his statesmen, and his professors, we behold 
that Germany held herself a nation apart from the rest of 
the world and superior to it. and predestined to maintain 
that superiority by war. In contrast to this narrow and de- 
structive spirit of nationalism, we in America have learned 



22 



the value of humanity above the race, so that we cherish 
all mankind in the bosom of our country. 

And right here, dear Doctor Schaper, may I say that 
the statesmanship of Germany has been constructed upon 
one false principle which is mainly responsible for all the 
woes that this German war has brought upon the world? 
Your military rulers have inculcated in the hearts of your 
people the belief that the German flag must follow Germans 
in their emigration. Hence you claim to require colonies. 
Then your Emperor tells his people that Germany is above 
all— have you not a song to those words?- — ^he teaches 
them that they are above the rest of our poor humanity, 
and they believe it. Well, there are, as I have said, eight 
million Germans in America who do not require the Ger- 
man flag in order to insure their utmost felicity. There 
are other thousands of them in Canada, in Brazil, in Ar- 
gentina, and elsewhere around the globe, always safe and 
happy without the German flag. When Americans adopt 
other countries they do not carry our flag with 
them. Is it not absurd and mischievous, then, to hold to 
the doctrine that Germans henceforth must continue to 
live under the German flag, wherever they go? Is not the 
wild dream of Pan-Germanism at the bottom of this great 
crime? Is there not a higher destiny, to be born, perhaps, 
out of this war, that humanity is greater than any race, and 
that governments in conflict with that destiny must perish? 

Then, again, your military class, desiring to hold the 
government in their own hands, are promulgating the idea 
that the common people of Germany are incapable of what 
English and Americans call self-government. "No people," 
says your General von Bernhardi, "is so unfitted as the Ger- 
mans to direct their own destinies." Well, I cannot help 
wondering what the reckoning will be between the German 
people and their rulers when this war is over. There is a 



23 

fine line in Bulwer's play, "Richelieu," which fits this case : 
"Oh, if men will play dark sorcery with the heart of man, 
let them who raise the spell beware the fiend !" 

These war dreams, this German solidarity, this Pan- 
Germanism, this mendacious diplomacy, this policy of being 
armed to the teeth, this false principle of the state above 
the individual, the still more fallacious sentiment of Ger- 
many above humanity, the contempt of your military rulers 
for human life, their eager wish to destroy the whole body 
of property which marks the progress of mankind — all this 
has made the world afraid of you. Your insatiate ' spirit 
has terrified us all. Your General Stafif have even published 
a plan for attacking America. If you beat down the Brit- 
ish Empire, why will not our turn come next ? 

And so, at last, my dear Dr. Schaper, we find our- 
selves shocked, ashamed, and outraged that a Christian na- 
tion should be guilty of this criminal war. When I say that 
we hate this conflict and that we execrate the German mili- 
itarists who made it, I am uttering the opinion of the great 
majority of the American people, including hundreds of 
thousands of our German-American cftizens. There was 
no justification for it. Armed and defended as you were, 
the whole world could never have broken into your borders. 
And while German culture still has something to. gain from 
her neighbors, yet the intellectual progress which Germany 
was making seemed to be lifting upT^ier own people to 
better things for themselves and to an altruistic service to 
mankind. Your great nation floated its ships in every 
ocean, sold its wares in the uttermost parts of the earth, 
and enjoyed the good favor of humanity, because it was 
trusted as a humane state. But now all this achievement 
has vanished, all this good opinion has been destroyed. You 
cannot in half a century regain the spiritual and material 
benefits which you have lost. 



24 

Oh. that we might have again a Germany that we could 
respect, a (lermany of true peace, of true progress, of true 
culture, modest and not boastful, forever rid her of war 
lords, and her armed hosts, and turning once more to the 
uplifting influence of such leaders as Luther, Goethe, Beet- 
hoven and Kant ! But Germany, whether you win or lose in 
this war, has fallen, and the once glorious nation must con- 
tinue to pursue its course in darkness and murder until con- 
science at last bids it withdraw its armies back to its own 
boundaries, there to wait for the world's pardon upon this 
inexpiable damnation. 

I believe you will forgive me for suggesting that, if the 
ninety-three men who have w'ritten me this letter would 
exercise their great influence upon the conscience of their 
own countrymen to stop the war, recall your armies, and 
plead for peace upon terms which would take full cogni- 
zance of the wrongs your Emperor and your Imperial Chan- 
cellor have confessed — then would you be doing a real serv- 
ice to humanity surpassing all the achievements of your 
lives. 

Many good things are sure to come out of this wicked 
war. The best of all will be peace. I belong to all the 
peace societies, and have observed that the men of peace 
used to speak with bated breath and walk with timid step, 
fearful of the glance of fighting men. But from this time 
forward, I predict that peace is going to be the most militant 
thing on this earth, enforcing law and order with the high 
hand of authority, and trampling under foot the petty maj- 
esties who would ever again try to develop great empires 
upon the dead bodies of poor working men and simple peas- 
ants. Then shall we find humanity greater indeed than any 
part of it which may be called a nation. 

I desire, in closing this very candid response to your 
letter, to express my profound sympathy for the German 



25 

people. I mourn with you for the good and brave men 
whose lives have been needlessly thrown away in an interna- 
tional debauch of murder and robbery; I weep, as you do, 
with the precious women whose hearts have been broken by 
an insupportable loss; I pity the poor little children, a 
million and more of them, who must grow up without the 
love and care of a father. I wish that I might do or say 
something that would help to assuage the grief of the Ger- 
man people, but no human hand can lighten, such a stag- 
gering burden of affliction. 

With my thanks for your letter, and my compliments 
to the other gentlemen whose names are signed to it, with 
a profound wish that permanent peace may soon come to 
this troubled world, and assuring you of my unshaken 
friendship and esteem, I am, dear Doctor Schaper, 

Always faithfully yours, 

S. H. CHURCH. 



26 

TO THE CIVILIZED WORLD 



As representatives of German Science and Art, we 
hereby protest to the civihzed world against the lies and 
calumnies with which our enemies are endeavoring to stain 
the honor of Germany in her hard struggle for existence — 
in a struggle which has been forced upon her. 

The iron mouth of events has proved the untruth of 
the fictitious German defeats, consequently misrepresenta- 
tion and calumny are all the more eagerly at work. As 
heralds of truth we raise our voices against these. 

It is not true that Germany is guilty of having caused 
this war. Neither the people, the government, nor the 
"Kaiser" wanted war. Germany did her utmost to prevent 
it; for this assertion the world has documental proof. Often 
enough during the 26 years of his reign has Wilhelm II. 
shown himself to be the upholder of peace, and often 
enough has this fact been acknowledged by our opponents. 
Nay, even the "Kaiser," they now dare to call an Attila, 
has been ridiculed by them for years, because of his stead- 
fast endeavors to maintain universal peace. Not till a nu- 
merical superiority which had been lying in wait on the 
frontiers, assailed us, did the whole nation rise to a man. 

It is not true that we trespassed in neutral Belgium. It 
has been proved that France and England had resolved on 
such a trespass, and it has likewise been proved that Bel- 
gium had agreed to their doing so. It would have been sui- 
cide on our part not to have been beforehand. 

It is not true that the life and property of a single Bel- 
gian citizen was injured by our soldiers without the bitterest 
self-defense having made it necessary ; for again, and again, 
notwithstanding repeated threats, the citizens lay in ambush, 
shooting at the troops out of the houses, mutilating the 



27 

wounded, and murdering in cold blood the medical men 
while they were doing their Samaritan work. There can 
be no baser abuse than the suppression of these crimes with 
the view of letting the Germans appear to be criminals, only 
for having justly punished these assassins for their wicked 
deeds. 

It is not true that our troops treated Louvain brutally. 
Furious inhabitants having treacherously fallen upon them 
in their quarters, our troops, with aching hearts, were obliged 
to fire a part of the town as a punishment. The greatest 
part of Louvain has been preserved. The famous Town Hall 
stands quite intact; for at great self-sacrifice our soldiers 
saved it from destruction by the flames. Every German 
would of course greatly regret, if in the course of this ter- 
rible war any work of art should already have been de- 
stroyed or be destroyed at some future time, but inasmuch 
as in our love for art we cannot be surpassed by any other 
nation, in the same degree we must decidedly refuse to buy 
a German defeat at the cost of saving a work of art. 

/■/ is not true that our warfare pays no respect to in- 
ternational laws. It knows no undisciplined cruelty. But 
in the east the earth is saturated with the blood of women 
and children unmercifully butchered by the wild Russian 
troops, and in the west, Dum-Dum bullets mutilate the 
breasts of our soldiers. Those who have allied themselves 
with Russians and Servians, and present such a shameful 
scene to the world as that of inciting Mongolians and Ne- 
groes against the white race, have no right whatever to call 
them'selves upholders of civilization. 

It is not true that the combat against our so-called mil- 
itarism is not a combat against our civilization, as our ene- 
mies hypocritically pretend it is. Were it not for German 
militarism, German civilization would long since have been 



28 



extirpated. For its protection it arose in a land which for 
centuries had been plagued by bands of rol)l)ers, as no other 
land had been. The German army and the German people 
are one, and to-day this consciousness fraternizes 70 mill- 
ions of Germans, all ranks, positions and parties being one. 

We cannot wrest the poisonous weapon — the lie — out 
of the hands of our enemies. All we can do is to proclaim 
to all the world, that our enemies are giving false witness 
against us. You, who know us. who with us have protected 
the most holy possessions of man, we call to you : 

Have faith in us ! Believe, that we shall carry on this 
war to the end as a civilized nation, to whom the legacy of 
a Goethe, a Beethoven, and a Kant, is just as sacred as its 
own hearths and homes. 

For this we pledge you our names and our honor. 



Adolf von Baeyer, 

Professor of Ohemistrj', Munich. 



Prof. Justus Brinkmann, 

Museum Director, Hamburg:. 



Prof. Peter Behrens, 

Berlin. 

Emil von Behring, 

Professor of Medicine, Marburg. 

Wilhelm von Bode, 

General Director of the Rojal 
Museums, Berlin. 

Alois Brandl, 

Professor, President of the Shakes- 
peare Society, Berlin. 

Luju Brentano, 

Professor of National Economy, 
Munich. 



Johannes Conrad, 

Professor of National Economy, 
Halle. 



Franz von Defregger, 

Munich. 

Richard Dehmel, 

Hamburg. 

Adolf Deissmann, 

Professor of Tlieulogy, Berlin. 

Prof. Wilhelm Doerpfeld, 

Berlin. 



29 



Friedrich von Duhn, 

Professor of Archaeologj-, Heidelberg. 

Albert Ehrhard, 

Professor of R. Catholic Theology, 
Strassburg. 

Prof. Paul Ehrlich, 

Frankfort-oii-the-Main. 

Karl Engler, 

Professor of Chemistry, Karlsruhe. 

Gerhard Esser, 

Professor of R. Catholic Theologrj', 
Bonn. 

Rudolf Eucken, 

Professor of Philosophy, Jena. 

Herbert Eulenberg, 

Kaiserswerth. 

Heinrich Finke, 

Professor of Historj', Freiburg. 

Emil Fischer, 

Professor of Chemistry, Berlin. 

Wilhelm Foerster, 

Professor of Astronomy, Berlin. 



J. J. de Groot, 

Professor of Ethnography, Berlin. 

Fritz Haber, 

Professor of Clieniistry, Berlin. 

Ernst Haeckel, 

Professor of Zoology, Jena. 

Max Halbe, 

Munich. 

Prof. Adolf von Harnack, 

General Director of the Royal 
Library, Berlin. 

Gerhart Hauptmann, 

Agnetendorf. 

Karl Hauptmann, 

Schreiberhau. 

Gustav Hellmann, 

Profesisor of Meteorology, Berlin. 

Wilhelm Herrmann, 

Professor of Protestant Theology, 
Marburg. 

Andreas Heusler, 

Professor of Northern Philology, 
Berlin. 



Ludwig Fulda, 

Berlin. 



Adolf von Hildebrand, 

Munich. 



Eduard von Gebhardt, 

Dus'seldorf. 



Ludwig Hoffmann, 

City Architect, Berlin. 



30 



Engelbert Humperdinck, 

Berlin. 



Maximilian Lenz, 

Professor of History, Hamburg^. 



Leopold Graf Kalckreuth, 

President of the German Confedera- 
tion of Artists, Eddelsen. 

Arthur Kampf, 

Berlin. 

Fritz Aug. V. Kaulbach, 

Munich. 

Theodor Kipp, 

Professor of Jurisprudence, Berlin. 

Felix Klein, 

Professor of Mathematics, 
Goettingen. 

Max Klinger, 

Leipsic. 

Alois Knoepfler, 

Professor of History of Art, Munich. 

Anton Koch, 

Professor of R. Catholic Theology, 
Munster. 

Paul Laband, 

Professor of Jurisprudence, 
Strassburg. 

Karl Lamprecht, 

Professor of History, Leipsic. 



Max Liebermann, 

Berlin. 

Franz von Liszt, 

Professor of Jurisprudence, Berlin. 

Ludwig Manzel, 

President of the Academy of Arts, 
Berlin. 



Josef Mausbach, 

Professor of R. Catholic Theology, 
Munster. 



Georg von Mayr, 

Professor of Political Sciences, 
Munich. 



Sebastian Merkle, 

Professor of R. Catholic Tlieology, 
Wurzburg. 



Eduard Meyer, 

Professor of History, Berlin. 

Heinrich Morf, 

Professor of Roman Pliilology, 
Berlin. 

Friedrich Naumann, 

Berlin. 

Albert Neisser, 

Professor of Medicine, Breslau. 



Philipp Lenard, 

Professor of Physics, Heidelberg. 



Walter Nernst, 

Professor of Physics, Berlin. 



31 



Wilhelm Ostwald, 

Professor of Chemistry, Leipsic. 

Bruno Paul, 

Director of School for Applied Arts, 
Berlin.- 

Max Planck, 

Professor of Physics, Berlin. 

Albert Plehn, 

Professor of Medicine, Berlin. 

Georg Reicke, 

Berlin. 

Prof. Max Reinhardt, 

Director of the German Theatre, 
Berlin. 

Alois Riehl, 

Professor of Philosophy, Berlin. 

Karl Robert, 

Professor of Archaeology, Halle. 

Wilhelm Roentgen, 

Professor of Physics. Munich. 



August Schmidlin, 

Professor of Sacred History, 
Munster. 



Gustav von Schmoller, 

Professor of National Economy, 
Berlin. 



Reinhold Seeberg, 

Professor of Protestant Theology, 
Berlin. 



Martin Spahn, 

Professor of History, Strassburg. 

Franz von Stuck, 

Munich. 

Hermann Sudermann, 

Berlin. 

Hans Thoma, 

Karlsruhe. 

Wilhelm Truebner, 

Karlsruhe. 

Karl Vollmoeller, 

Stuttgart. 



Max Rubner, 

Professor of Medicine, Berlin. 



Richard Voss, 

Berchtesgaden. 



Fritz Schaper, 

Berlin. 

Adolf von Schlatter, 

Professor of Protestant Theology, 
Tubingen. 



Karl Vossler, 

Professor of Roman Philology, 
Munich. 



Siegfried Wagner, 

Bayreuth. 



32 



Wilhelm Waldeyer, 

Professor of Anatomy, Berlin. 

August von Wassermann, 

Professor of Medicine, Berlin. 

Felix von Weingartner. 
Theodor Wiegand, 

Museum Director, Berlin. 

Wilhelm Wien, 

Professor of Physics, VVurzburg. 



Ulrich von Wilamowitz- 
Moellendorff, 

Professor of Philology, Berlin. 

Richard Willstaetter, 

Professor of Chemistry, Berlin. 

Wilhelm Windelband, 

Professor of Philosophy, Heidelberg. 

Wilhelm Wundt, 

Professor of Philosophy, Leipsic. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

lllllllliillli'lllllllllllillllllllll 

015 900 860 5 



"Our excellent President Wilson, 
beloved and esteemed by our 
whole people, has charged us all 
to maintain an impartial neu- 
trality, and that I believe we are 
all earnestly striving to do; but 
we are, at the same time, in like 
manner, earnestly striving to 
find the right and to condemn 
the wrong, because neutrality 
can never mean indifference. 
You will remember that Dante, 
in the Inferno, found a hell be- 
neath all other hells prepared for 
those timid beings who insisted 
on being neutral in the everlast- 
ing fight between good and evil. 
This war is a fight between those 
forces of good and evil." 

S. H. CHURCH 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



015 900 860 5 % 



